A life on the force, and in fiction

Castro, an 11-year veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD), has always had a love of writing.

“On patrol, it seems like one cop usually does the driving and one writes the reports,” Castro said. “Most people want to drive, but I would love doing the reports.”

Filling out police paperwork allowed Castro to indulge his literary side, at least to an extent.

“It has to be very factual. You can’t take creative license, of course,” Castro said. “But detectives would read my report and say how detailed it was. You can really end up telling a story with facts.”

Castro, currently stationed at Police Area 7 in the South Bronx, which covers the 40th and 42nd Precincts, has taken his passion for writing to a new level with the release of his debut novel, Smoke and Mirrors: Police Dreams.

The novel, set in the fictitious 51st Precinct, is a self-published e-book also available in paperback form.

“It’s been a dream come true,” said Sgt. Jordan Castro.

It tells the story of a rookie cop named Brandon Rose who is anxious to become a detective as quickly as possible. While working on a quadruple homicide case known as the “Ash Wednesday Murders,” Rose becomes embroiled in a questionable relationship with a confidential informant in his push to identify the killers and solve the case.

“Brandon’s such a hard charger,” Castro said of the book’s protagonist. “He’s so driven by ambition that he’s willing to risk his career.”

Though the story is fiction, Castro said he attempted to inject as much realism as possible.

“I wanted to put individuals into our shoes and put them on patrol with us,” he remarked. “I wanted to put a human face on policing.”

He said he was inspired to begin working on the novel shortly after the 2014 murders of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, shot while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn.

Smoke and Mirrors: Police Dreams touches on the often tense relationship between cops and the communities they serve, said Castro, who wrote the novel in part due to increased unrest between police officers and the general public after a spate of highly-publicized incidents that included the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of officers.

“At the time, the rhetoric was very anti-police,” said Castro. “I wanted to do something to counter that, from a police officer’s perspective.”

Smoke and Mirrors: Police Dreams delves into those tensions as protagonist Rose makes his first arrest, apprehending an African American male.

“You get a look at these two worlds that don’t quite understand each other,” Castro said. “It’s a very innocuous incident that blows up.”

Castro said the NYPD’s focus on a community-based policing has helped ease some of the tensions from where they stood a few years ago.

“The police focusing on community relations is probably the best thing to happen to the department in a long time,” he stated. “They’re interacting, they’re engaging, they’re having conversations.”

A native of Washington Heights, Castro initially had no desire to go into law enforcement.

“My father kept telling me to take the NYPD test – I took it mostly to appease him,” he said.

Marathon man.

Castro passed the test with high scores and joined the police academy in 2006, learning to love police work.

Still, he couldn’t shake his desire to write, and said he specifically wanted to publish a book.

“I always felt that a man should really run a marathon and write a novel sometime in his life,” said Castro.

He said he received a mixed reaction from fellow officers regarding his book, as some in the close-knit police community did not think he should write a revealing study about police work.

“It’s been mostly very positive, though,” he said.

The motivations behind Castro’s book hit home again in June, following the assassination of Bronx officer Miosotis Familia.

Castro, who has donated money from his book sales to the families of officers Liu and Ramos, said he intends to do the same for Familia, whose death reinforced for Castro the inherent dangers of daily police work.

Castro says he will also donate proceeds in honor of Officer Miosotis Familia.

“It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to always [have] come home,” he remarked.

Castro is currently studying for the NYPD lieutenant’s test, but said he intends to write another police novel, and would eventually like to write a book for families or young adults.

And he has had success meeting other life goals.

He ran the 2014 New York City Marathon – as well as the 2016 race.

“It’s really nice to be able to do things that I love,” said Castro. “It’s been a dream come true.”